Luconda Dager is the president of the Velvet Ice Cream Company and the fourth generation of her family to lead the Utica, Ohio-based ice cream manufacturer. As president, she oversees all aspects of the 105-year-old company, which has 125 employees and produces and distributes more than five million gallons of ice cream each year.
Before joining the family business in 1994, Luconda spent three years in New York working in the retail fashion industry. She became the president of Velvet Ice Cream in 2009.
Luconda serves on the Boards of Directors of the International Dairy Foods Association; the Midwest Dairy Foods Association; and The Woodward Local Food Initiative. She is also a trustee for the Hervey Memorial Library in Utica, Ohio.
The Dager Family and Velvet Ice Cream have a long history of supporting philanthropic causes in the communities they serve. For the past several years, the Velvet Ice Cream Company has hosted and supported the annual Utica Sertoma Ice Cream Festival. Luconda has also raised funds for and ridden in the Pelotonia Bike Rally, which benefits cancer research at The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center.
Luconda is a frequent speaker and author on the dairy industry and on small, family business issues. She is also active in the Conway Center for Family Business. In 2007, she was named to the Columbus Business First "Forty Under Forty" list of influential business leaders.
Growing up in the area, Luconda attended St. Francis de Sales School and graduated from Newark Catholic High School. She studied business at University of St. Frances in Ft. Wayne, IN and earned a bachelor’s degree in 1991 from Xavier University in Cincinnati. She and her husband, Bill, live in Mt. Vernon, Ohio and have a daughter, Lauren, age 14.
